Hurricane Isaac (2042) (GiedriusforCat5)
NOTICE: THIS IS IN NO WAY BASED ON REAL LIFE STORMS - THE STORMS LISTED HERE ARE ENTIRELY FICTIONAL FOR THE YEAR, AND DO NOT REPRESENT THE SEASON IN THE PHYSICAL WORLD Hurricane Isaac was the deadliest, second most damaging and the most powerful storm of the 2042 season that caused catastrophic damage in New Orleans. It was a powerful Cabo Verde type Category 5 hurricane. It's the most intense and the second most damaging hurricane in the Atlantic ever, and also has the highest reliably recorded winds in the Atlantic ever. The storm originated near Cabo Verde as a Tropical Low. The storm then intensified while generally moving west, and peaked for the first time as a minimal Category 4 in the open Atlantic before getting an eyewall replacement cycle and weakening to high end Category 2 intensity. Then it started to reintensify again over the warm waters of the Southern Carribean, and became a 160 mph Category 5 before getting yet another eyewall replacement cycle. The storm then continuously weakened until it passed the Yucatan strait and entered the Gulf of Mexico, at which point intensification started and grew into rapid intensification as the storm went from Category 2 to 5 in 30 hours, fueled by the hot Gulf waters, and reached a peak of 200 miles per hour and 879 mbar 12 hours after reintensifying to Category 5 status, while making landfall in southern Louisiana. The storm then moved over New Orleans, and started rapid weakening - from Category 5 to Tropical storm in just 18 hours. The storm then weakened and became a remnant over the Southeastern US, but reemerged from North Carolina into the Atlantic and reintensified to Storm status yet again and peaked for a fourth time as it made landfall in New York City as a moderate Tropical Storm. Isaac then became extratropical in 6 hours and was absorbed by an extratropical system. Isaac was a devastating storm to many locations, including the Lesser Antilles due to a Category 3 landfall on one of the islands, Northern Venezuela and Colombia due to winds and rainfall, Hispaniola, Jamaica and Cuba due to it's outer rainbands, the Yucatan Peninsula due to high winds, and the Gulf Coast of the USA due to a never before seen 200 mph landfall almost directly south of New Orleans. The East Coast of the USA saw lesser effects due to the storm being relatively weak there. The storm, in total, caused about 250 billion US dollars (2042) in damage and over 10,000 fatalities, mostly in the Gulf Coast due to the surge, catastrophic winds and rainfall, and levee breaks in New Orleans. In the storm's wake, military personnel were deployed to assist in recovery efforts and aid distribution. Meteorological history The storm can be tracked to a wave that originally moved offshore Africa on the 31st of July. At 00:00 UTC August 2nd the wave was deemed organized enough to become classified as a Potential Tropical Cyclone. 12 hours later, it was classified as a Tropical Depression due to increased circulation. At 00:00 August 3rd, it attained gale force winds and was named Isaac ''by the National Hurricane Center (NHC). The storm continued to intensify, and 24 hours later, at 00:00 UTC August 4th, it attained hurricane force winds and became a hurricane. 12 hours later, it was upgraded to Category 2. At 06:00 UTC August 5th, it attained 115 mile per hour winds and was upgraded to a Category 3 major hurricane and hurricane watches were issued for the Windward Islands and tropical storm watches for the rest of the Lesser Antilles. By 18:00 UTC of the same day, it attained 130 mile per hour winds and was upgraded to Category 4 status. The storm peaked 3 hours later, before succumbing to an eyewall replacement cycle and weakening below major status at 06:00 UTC August 7th to high end Category 2 status. By then the all watches issued before were upgraded to warnings and the watches were extended to the northern Windward Islands and the northern parts of South America. The storm did not spend a long time before reintensifying, and became a major yet again at 18:00 of August 7th while making landfall on one of the Windward Islands. The storm continued intensification, and reintensified to Category 4 status by 06:00 UTC August 8th. Intensification still continued and culminated in Isaac becoming a Category 5 hurricane by 06:00 of the next day. It peaked 3 hours later, and then yet another eyewall replacement cycle disrupted the eye, and the storm weakened below Category 5 by 18:00 of the same day. The weakening continued, and the storm weakened below major status at 06:00 August 11th, while located roughly in between the eastern tip of the Yucatan peninsula and the western tip of Cuba. The storm did not remain below major for long, though. When it crossed into the Gulf of Mexico, it once again became a major, at 18:00 UTC of August 11th. The storm then started somewhat rapidly intensifying, becoming a Category 4 hurricane at 06:00 August 12th, and becoming a Category 5 once again at 18:00 of the same day. The hurricane peaked at a record breaking 200 miles per hour and 879 mbar, at 00:00 UTC August 13th. The storm quickly moved into Louisiana, having it's closest approach to New Orleans at 06:00 August 13th, still as a Category 5. The storm then rapidly weakened, and by 00:00 August 14th it became a tropical storm. Isaac then degenerated into a remnant low at 18:00 August 14th over western Georgia. It then moved over the southeast for a few hours before reemerging into the Atlantic from North Carolina, at 12:00 UTC August 15th. Isaac regained tropical characteristics at 06:00 August 16th, but did not have gale force winds and thus was a tropical depression. At 18:00 of the same day it reattained gale force winds off the coast of southern Maryland. It made landfall in New York City at 12:00 UTC August 17th, as a medium Tropical Storm. The storm then degenerated into an extratropical system over the State of New York at 18:00 of the same day. It was absorbed by a more powerful extratropical cyclone the next day. Preparations '''The Carribean' On the 5th of August, at 06:00 UTC, first watches were issued for the Windward and Leeward islands, while Isaac was a Category 3 hurricane heading roughly due west. On the 7th of August, at 06:00 UTC all watches were upgraded to warnings with additional watches being issued for the rest of the Windward islands, Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola and the Northern parts of South America. On the 8th, at 12:00 UTC watches were issued for the Yucatan peninsula while all previous watches were upgraded into warnings, and the original warnings were discontinued. The next day the watches for the Yucatan were upgraded into warnings. On the 10th of August at 18:00 UTC all warnings except for Cuba and Yucatan were discontinued. By the 12th of August all warnings or watches in the region were discontinued. Isaac made landfall on one of the Windward islands at 18:00 August 7th as a Category 3 hurricane with damaging effects, while the rest of the islands got the outer bands and gusty winds, reaching gale force, and in the islands closer to the landfall location sustained gale winds. Then the storm moved into the Carribean sea and did not affect land with higher than gale winds, but it did bring rainfall in it's outer bands. The only places in the Carribean sea that got hurricane force sustained winds were Jamaica, the eastern tip of the Yucatan and the western tip of Cuba. The Gulf Coast On the 11th of August at 12:00 UTC, Mississippi and Louisiana declared states of emergency and voluntary evacuations began while hurricane warnings were issued, schools were closed and every non essential worker was released from work. The next day, at the same time, mandatory evacuation orders were issued in New Orleans, for the second time in the city's history, after Katrina. Biloxi, Mississippi also declared mandatory evacuation with Katrina not forgotten in the citizen's and the government's minds. Both locations were affected in devastating ways by Isaac, with the preparations saving hundreds of thousands of lives. By the 14th of August all warnings were discontinued. Isaac made landfall as the strongest storm in the Atlantic ever recorded at 00:00 UTC August 13th. Isaac's effects on the Gulf Coast were in many locations worse than Katrina's, with the entire coasts of Louisiana and Mississippi reaching gale force sustained winds at some point. The storm's rainfall extended all the way from eastern Texas to the Florida panhandle, however was mostly minor except in Louisiana and Mississippi. The East Coast On the 15th of August at 12:00 UTC, Tropical Storm warnings were issued for the Eastern Seaboard from the Outer Banks to Massachusetts in anticipation of Isaac's regeneration and reintensification. All warnings were discontinued at 18:00 August 17th due to the storm becoming extratropical. The effects of Isaac on the East Coast were the least damaging, with no locations recording winds higher than 50 miles per hour. Isaac made landfall in New York City at 12:00 UTC August 17th as a 45 mile per hour tropical storm. Impact Isaac's effects extend through a large part of the Caribbean and Gulf Coast. On August 13th, Isaac's large amounts of surge and high winds overtopped or even collapsed New Orleans' leevees, causing an unprecedented flooding in the city, with almost the entirety of the city being flooded, an extent of flooding not seen since Katrina. The mass evacuation of the city was put into effect and worked very well, however about 50,000 people in the Gulf Coast did not evacuate, and about a one fifth of those who stayed died. This makes Isaac the deadliest U.S. hurricane since at least the great Galveston hurricane of 1900. The damages are estimated at over $250 billion (2042 U.S. dollars), the third highest total on record, behind Gert of 2041, and Humvert of 2042. The death toll from Isaac is uncertain due to heavy flooding damage, missing people, and the large amount of time it took for some people to be found. It is estimated at over 10,000, the majority coming from two states: Louisiana and Mississippi. The 3 states of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama were declared federal disaster areas, and were eligble to receive federal aid, which they promptly did. The Caribbean Isaac's first effects were felt in the Caribbean Lesser Antilles islands, with Martinique and Dominica getting the edges of the eyewall, and Martinique even barely getting a landfall. Other islands received lesser effects, a large part of Northern Lesser Antilles received rainfall, and a smaller radius of islands north and south of Martinique received gale force winds. Later on, the storm affected the northern part of South America, specifically Colombia and Venezuela, and the Greater Antilles, mostly with rainfall, with only three islands or archipelagos from the Greater Antilles receiving gale force winds - Jamaica, Cayman Islands and Cuba. The large majority of effects between the second peak and the main peak were felt in Cuba, the Cayman Islands, and the Yucatan peninsula. The islands of Martinique and Dominica reported "severe damage", however it was not the worst damage these islands have experienced in their history. In both islands, 14 casualties were reported and the damages were estimated at $500 million U.S. dollars. The northern Lesser Antilles reported minor damages from rainfall and gale force winds, with 7 casualties and $50 million U.S. dollars of damages. Puerto Rico and Haiti suffered from rainfall, with 32 casualties and $300 million U.S. dollars of damage, mostly in Haiti, due to mudslides. Haitian officials called the flooding "worse than expected", since it wasn't initially predicted to be so much rainfall. Puerto Rico suffered minor effects, "definitely not the worst our island has ever seen". Jamaica reported moderately severe damages, with the mountainous regions suffering from moderate amounts of rainfall. 5 casualties and $200 million U.S. dollars of damage were reported on the island. Cuba and the Cayman islands reported "disruption and severe damages", and officials in the Yucatan, especially on the island of Cozumel, reported the damages to be "severely disrupting". The damage and casualty totals of these areas are estimated at 37 casualties and $1.25 billion U.S. dollars. The casualties and damages all over the region totalled 95 casualties and $2.3 billion U.S. dollars of damages (year 2042 dollars). U.S. Gulf Coast Isaac made its first landfall in the southern Louisiana bayou, at a record breaking intensity of 200 miles per hour and 879 mbar, early on August 13th. 6 hours later, it passed just east of New Orleans and made its second and final Gulf Coast landfall on the Louisiana - Mississippi border. Isaac had devastating effects on the Greater New Orleans metropolitan area, with many of the city's leevees getting overtopped or even collapsing. The city's leevees were not intended to survive a direct Category 5 hit, and the city did experience direct Category 5 winds. Isaac's destruction was not limited to Louisiana, though. Mississippi also experienced direct Category 5 winds, with the city of Biloxi, MIssissippi experiencing worst destruction since Katrina, possibly even worse than Katrina. The flooding from storm surge had significant effects even in Alabama, truly making this storm a worse repeat of Hurricane Katrina. Evacuations were of great help, but about 50,000 people in the mandatory evacuation area stayed home, most of them due to not believing that a hurricane could affect them in major ways after Katrina prompted upgrades to flooding protection. It is estimated that at least 10,000 people perished on the Gulf Coast. The storm surge reached over 20 feet in some areas, with Biloxi recording an astonishing 27 feet (8.2 m). Extremely high winds snapped palm trees and shred some buildings to pieces, as well as severely damaging some skyscrapers, and ripping off many roofs. The storm left at least 300,000 homeless in the region, and over a million experienced some degree of power outages. Many bridges were severely damaged or even completely destroyed, with Lake Pontchartrain Causeway suffering worse damage than it did from Katrina, which damaged transportation infrastructure in the region for a lengthy period of time. The total casualty count in the region is over 10,000, and the total damages exceed $250 billion (2042 U.S. dollars). U.S. East Coast Isaac's effects on the U.S. East Coast were minor, and did not contribute much to the casualty and damage counts. The storm surge in North Carolina was undetectable, and in New York city caused minor flooding, however the flooding was relevant after Humvert passed and caused severe destruction in New York City. Isaac caused an extension in closure of schools and most workplaces in NYC, causing some economic damage. 17 casualties were recorded, many lives were lost after trees were knocked over. The damages in the region reach $500 million U.S. dollars, and 17 casualties. Power outages affected 15,000 people.Category:Category 5 Atlantic hurricanes Category:Category 5 hurricanes